I have broken with the
tradition of having a separate help (.chm) file. The usage instructions are
simple enough to include them here. The Lens control panel (shown below) will be
displayed when the program is operational. Here is a handy program for those of us who's visual resolution is falling below our computer pixel resolution (usually due to the ageing process). As the name implies, it is a simple magnifying glass that can pop up and be moved to any part of the screen that you require a closer look.
I have broken with the
tradition of having a separate help (.chm) file. The usage instructions are
simple enough to include them here. The Lens control panel (shown below) will be
displayed when the program is operational.
You have the choice of setting the width, height, and magnifying power of the lens. Simply pull down on the appropriate list box and select your choice. You can also decide whether you want a frame around the magnifying lens (as shown above) or not. The lens can be round (or oval) or rectangular. And you can choose to have the cursor position and red-green-blue (RGB) color values of the pixel at that position displayed in the center of the lens (Text) or not.
The control panel can be positioned anywhere on the screen by pointing at the top control bar, pressing the left mouse button, and moving it to the desired position. Minimize and EXIT buttons work as they normally do with other windows programs. When you exit the Lens program, all of these settings are remembered by the system for the next time you start the program.
To work the lens, simply press the left mouse button while the cursor is on
any other portion of the Lens control panel. The control panel should disappear
(see bug below) and the lens will appear. While still holding the left mouse
button down, drag the lens to any portion of the screen that you wish to
magnify. When you release the left mouse button, the lens vanishes and the Lens
control panel re-appears. The position and RGB color values of the last cursor
position (relative to the upper left corner) show on the Lens control panel.
There is one more feature in the Lens program that most people will not use. I originally built this program so that I could examine graphic images or icons to see how they are constructed. For that I use a higher magnifying power. In addition, if the control key is pressed while the mouse is moved, the lens will remain stationary and the cursor now moves at a slower rate (1/Mag) relative to the original image. (Warning: Keep the cursor within the lens border or the image will jump to be centered on the new image position.) The Ctrl key may be released at any time to select a new center position.
Here is a link to the Lens.zip file. Expand the file into the directory of your choosing (I tend to keep all Derman Software programs in the same directory). And enjoy.
Bugs: There are two known bugs which may or may not show up on your machine. They will not damage your system. 1) When you press the left mouse button to start the lens, occasionally you might get a blank screen (which strangely will redraw as you move the cursor around the screen). The simpler correction is to release the mouse button and press it again. 2) On some machines, the Lens control panel will not disappear, or will not disappear after the first use. Neither of these bugs should affect the program usefullness.
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